ChrisO, my Australian nickname for my Whitsunday tour, given to me by the crew of the Boomerang Sailing ship. This tour was the reason for traveling 7 hours north on the overnight coach from Rockhampton. I arrived at Airlie Beach at 7am I went straight to the Whitsunday
Terraces, more hotel than hostel. The dorm room was a hotel room just with more beds and had a lovely balcony overlooking the sea. When on the balcony writing postcards a large white
cockatill came to say hello.

Airlie is a small town with one main street. It is famous for sailing trips around the Whitsunday islands, a chain of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Airlie is a beautiful destination with the
backdrop of green hills and the huge marina full of still, green water which mirror the boats. I had 2days relaxing before my tour and went for a nice boardwalk along the coastline and through the
marina.

On the day of my tour I walked down to Abel Point and boarded the boat I'd be on for the next 48hours. The Boomerang, 83ft in length, 20ft wide, achieved 1^st place in the Wolrd Maxi Series and raced in USA, Japan and NZ. It is now retired as a tourist boat and has been re-fitted with 3 bathrooms, 3 dining tables and beds for 28guests and 4crew. When getting onboard I found out I'd be assigned a double bed with a swedish girl. Not the worse news in the world.

I was thankful we sailed out of Airlie in the sun and enjoyed the free feeling of being at sea. After 2hours we reached False Nara, off Nook Island. We kitted up with snorkelling gear and stinger suits (think wetsuits to protect against deadly jellyfish) and a small dingy took us onto the island's fringe reef. Jumping into the blue ocean off the dingy felt strange but nerves went as soon as I saw the reef. This was my third time snorkelling and the reef was the best so far, with
outstanding colourful coral, including blue stag coral. I saw a sea anaemia with a variety of clown fish. When swimming large sections of the water would suddenly became as warm as a bath. After the snorkel we sailed to Hook Passage and anchored next to an island for
the night. By 10.30pm most people went to bed as it felt very late with darkness all around.

The next day we woke at 7am by the sound of the crew getting the ship ready. After
breakfast we sailed through the Hook Passage to Tongue Bay. The dingy took us onstore the Whitsunday island and after a bush walk we reached a fantastic lookout over the swirling sand collections at Whitehaven beach and Hill Inlet. One of the best coastal views I've ever seen. After this I walked down to Tounge beach, put on my stinger suit and went for a walk into the shallow water with Olivier, a french guy from our boat. We saw many lagoon sting rays and a lemon shark within a few meters. We walked into a little beach, with the most amazing powder sand, 99.8% Silica.

When we returned to the main boat it started raining and we sailed through choppy waters to a quieter spot for lunch. We then went to Caves Cove on Hook Island for our 2^nd snorkel. We were all a bit cold and wet from the rain and jumping into the warm water felt really nice. This reef had larger collections of fish and huge coral walls that would suddenly drop 5meters to the ocean floor. You could take a deep breath, dive down the coral wall and see different fish to the shallow coral. The safety crew member in the dingy threw in a handful of fish food when I snorkelled near by and to my surprise I was suddenly surrounded by a frenzy of fish. It was only when I looked out of the water that I saw him laughing that I figured out what was going on. He did this a few more times and being in the middle of the fish feeding was incredible. In the evening on the second night I sat on deck socialising and playing drinking games with Olivier the French guy and Saskia and Bob from Holland.

On the third day we put the sails up and had a go at sailing. There hadn't been much wind over the 3days and there was barely enough to sail along for 30minutes. We went back to the motor and sailed back to the mainland. I spent the next few hours feeling like I was swaying still, but it was all worth it as I had loved being at sea. Fantastic seeing another section of the Great Barrier Reef.